The Collapse of Nature
The Collapse of Nature is the first episode of Season 4 of ''Orphan Black''. Synposis After two months of respite, Sarah’s hard-won refuge in Iceland is shattered by a Neolution attack. Once again forced to flee, she realizes no matter how far her family runs it will never be far enough. Summary In a forest, a figure wearing a sheep mask watches from a distance as two figures, a white man and a black woman, dressed in emergency medical uniforms, dig a grave and bury a body. The two hear a noise and start to search, and the masked figure sneaks away. Night. A phone rings, and a Leda clone wakes and answers, she calls the caller "M.K.", who says she saw the "Cheek Choppers", and will send coordinates. M.K. advises the Leda not to trust anyone next to her, and hangs up. The man sleeping to the Leda wakes, and it's Paul Dierden, who addresses the Leda as Beth. We seem to be in a flashback from when Beth was alive. Beth goes to the bathroom, and her phone displays a set of coordinates. Beth sorts through her medications, finds a pill, smashes it, and snorts it. She gets dressed and ready to leave; Paul offers to make dinner later, and gives her a perfunctory kiss, but they seem to have a frozen relationship. M.K.'s phone gets a message: Beth is on the way. M.K. takes off the sheep mask: she's another Leda clone. It's day in the forest, police teams are there, and Beth is there with her partner Art, who asks about the "anonymous tip" Beth had that led them here. A forensics team removes the body, a young man, heavily tattooed, with a single white-colored contact lens, his entire right cheek cut off, and signs of a struggle; notably, he has his penis surgically split in two, not an injury but a body modification. Art and Beth find footprints, one set large and one small, perhaps a man and a woman. They go for breakfast. In her car, Beth gets a call from Cosima, who is in Berkeley but is moving to Minnesota to be closer, but she needs for Alison to send her the tuition money so she can try and research a cure for Beth’s German friend and that she just broke up with her girlfriend and needs to get into school so she’d at least have a place to live. Cosima knows Beth is keeping her and Alison in the dark about more dangerous things that Beth is investigating. At a restaurant, Art and Beth discuss their relationship problems, and how police management is watching Beth, she's having trouble at work and her pill problem isn't helping. Another detective, Angela Deangelis, meets them, and privately expresses to Art that Beth is shaky. At the police station, Beth asks Raj the technician if she can borrow a set of surveillance gear, she thinks Paul is cheating on her. Raj agrees. Her boss, Lt. Hardcastle, wonders what anonymous tip led Beth there, and privately asks Art if she is making her meetings. Beth visits a camper, where there is a mask of a fox on the doorknob, and goes in; the voice of M.K. leads her to a monitor, showing M.K. in her sheep mask. The camper seems to be M.K.'s home, cluttered with electronic and scientific gear, but M.K. is too paranoid to be meeting Beth in person; she is somewhere else, connected by network. M.K. says the body Beth found was a "Neolution" follower, a bottom-level cultist. M.K. warns Beth that Neo's are everywhere, in Beth's bed, in the police, so Beth shouldn't trust anyone. M.K. directs Beth to Club Neolution to start looking. Art hears from Forensics that the victim was named Edward Capra. Beth goes to Club Neolution, identifies herself as police, and noses around. (We see Olivier Duval, who’s trying on some jewelry on his tail, getting a call from club security that Beth is here.) People there are into body modification of various types; some point her to a Neolution book, and Dr. Aldous Leekie, as their inspiration. She asks a few people about Edward Capra, mostly one woman, named Trina, and her boyfriend Aaron. Beth sits in her car, reading Dr. Leekie's Neolution book, and calls Alison to coordinate things. Alison (who is drinking through the call) says she sent a courier, who knocks at Beth's window; it turns out to be Alison's dealer, Ramon, who has a basket of flowers (with a brown bottle, and a strip of pills, under the flowers). Alison has received a pistol from Beth, and is eagerly trying it out as Beth says not to touch it until Beth comes to train her in basic firearm safety. Alison agrees to get Cosima's money in the bank, but wants Beth to take care of managing the clones' money, since Alison might draw suspicion if she’s constantly withdrawing large sums of money. Beth pops another pill or two during this conversation. At the Dyad building, a hall is being set up for a lecture on Neolution, by Dr. Leekie, who is initially on the phone to Olivier, advising him to just get Paul to take "her" on a holiday and repair the relationship. He then is welcoming visitors to the talk and signing their books, as an associate of his, Evie Cho, asks if there's a problem. He quietly tells her "one of my subjects seems to have exhumed one of yours." At this point, Beth walks up to Dr. Leekie and invites him to sign her copy of his book. She asks a few probing questions, about body modifications like Edward Capra had, but gets no useful responses, and eventually she leaves. Evie Cho, who was listening to all this, remarks that she was a Leda clone, and Dr. Leekie says he'll steer her away. Beth goes to the police station, and their superior, Lt. Hardcastle, says she and Art are off the Capra case, but says she has to take a urine test, and advises her to talk to the police union representative. Beth goes to the bathroom, and fills the sample cup with urine she pours from the brown bottle she got from Alison (it's Alison's daughter Gemma's urine, Beth and Alison know Alison's urine would not be a good idea). As she is ready to leave, Raj gives her the suitcases of surveillance equipment. She goes home, and immediately installs a video camera in a place in her living room, facing the front door; she places it behind a painting in which she has cut a hole. At dinner time, Beth snorts a line and starts drinking, when Paul comes home; he suggests they go somewhere for a while, take a few weeks vacation, but she counters with just staying here the same time and just having sex. As he starts assembling dinner, she reminds him, she needs a lover who can look her in the eyes, and he can't, he won't respond to any offer of intimacy, even when she starts to shed her clothes. He is facing away from her as she upbraids him for being hollow (even pointing her gun at him, which he never sees), and spineless, and even then he's passive, saying their relationship will be over when she wants, not before. She walks out. Beth drops in on Art in his apartment with his daughter, Maya. Beth looks like she's having Paul problems; Art sends Maya to bed, and comes back to find Beth almost asleep on the couch. She asks Art to look at her, to see her, questions that she had just asked of Paul without response, but Art can and does respond. They kiss, and move on to bed. Beth and Art are asleep when her phone rings: it's Trina, the woman she spoke with at Club Neolution, and she's worried about her boyfriend Aaron, he went off with some "hardcore" Neo's, a black girl and a white guy, they were going to a neighborhood where all the biohackers are. He had some time ago had a dentist insert some tiny thing in his cheek, as some sort of biometric study, but now he wants it out. Beth says she'll go see if he's all right. Beth gets to the neighborhood, and Trina directs her to an alley, then up the fire stairs to an office on a third floor. In the alley, she notices an ambulance, just sitting there. At the top of the fire stairs, she sees and hears three inside the office, Trina's friend Aaron, and two others, Frank, a white man, and Roxie, a black woman. Aaron is saying he can't do "it" any more, and wants "it" out, and the others aren't happy with Aaron's issues. They apply a mask to Aaron, which either puts him to sleep or kills him, and Roxie uses a scalpel to cut Aaron's right cheek out. As this is happening, a man walks in, a man who had appeared earlier at the police station, Detective Martin Duko; he expresses concern, not about Aaron's treatment, but that he complained, and "they" aren't going to be happy. From Aaron's cut-out cheek, Roxie uses tweezers to pluck a tiny wriggling worm. Seeing the worm, Beth staggers back, making noises those inside hear. She runs down the stair, at the same time as Detective Duko runs down the stairs inside. Back in the alley, Beth looks back, expecting to see Duko, hears a sound behind her, spins and shoots. But instead of Duko, she shot an Asian woman, who dies. Beth is overcome by anxiety, vomits, and calls Art for help. Art arrives, and finds Beth traumatized by the realization that she shot a civilian. Before they notify the police, they stage the scene and agree on a story of what happened: Beth heard a sound, turned, saw a gun in the woman's hand, and fired. Art places a phone in the victim's hand, to look like a gun. He has to work with Beth a lot to get the story straight, as she is rather out of it. Later, the scene is being investigated by a full police team, and Lt. Hardcastle says they will be interviewed by Internal Affairs, but they will be guided by, and under the care of, the police union representative, Detective Martin Duko, who conveniently is there, and assures Beth that he'll be with her. Yes, she knows, this is the man she was running from earlier. Beth comes again to M.K.'s camper, and this time, M.K. is there, but still concerned that Beth might have been followed. Beth is now also paranoid, seeing Neolution followers everywhere, convinced Paul is one and starts to regret telling Alison and Cosima that they’re clones. To make matters worse, Beth knows the union rep who is supposed to protect her is one of them. She is beside herself with worry, as well as exhausted, and M.K. watches as she falls asleep. A phone rings, and Sarah is in bed with Kira, in their safe house in Iceland; the flashback to Beth's story is over. It's Art calling, telling Sarah there's someone she should talk to. He hands his phone to a woman, someone in a sheep mask. She tells Sarah that she is called M.K., she knew Beth, Neolution knows where Sarah is, they are coming for Kendall Malone, and they all should run, right now. Credits Starring * Tatiana Maslany as Sarah Manning/Beth Childs (flashback) /Cosima Niehaus (flashback) /Alison Hendrix (flashback) /M.K. (flashback) * Jordan Gavaris as Felix Dawkins (flashback) * Dylan Bruce as Paul Dierden (flashback) * Kevin Hanchard as Arthur Bell * Kristian Bruun as Donnie Hendrix (credit only) * Maria Doyle Kennedy as Siobhan Sadler (credit only) Other Cast * Raymond Ablack as Raj Singh (flashback) * Jean Yoon as Janis Beckwith (flashback) * Alex Ozerov as Ramone (flashback) * Michael Chwastiak as Vice Cop (flashback) * Jonathan Nathaniel as Dresser (flashback) * Jade Hassouné as Aaron (flashback) * Monika Schurmann as Union Rep (flashback) * Ava Arrindell as Maya (flashback) * Uni Park as Maggie Chen (flashback) * John Nelles as Dialogue Coach (flashback) Supporting Cast *Matt Frewer as Aldous Leekie *Skyler Wexler as Kira Manning *David Richmond-Peck as Olivier Duval *Sarain Boylan as Astrid *Inga Cadranel as Angela Deangelis *Ron Lea as Lieutenant Gavin Hardcastle *Kathryn Alexandre as Tatiana Maslany's Acting Double *Ian Matthews as Frank *Miranda Edwards as Roxie *Allie Macdonald as Trina *Jessalyn Wanlim as Evie Cho *Gord Rand as Detective Duko Gallery Giphy.gif MK Image.png Season4Trailer2 Cosima DYAD.png Season4Trailer2 Delphine DYAD.png Season4Trailer2 Rachel DYAD.png Season4Trailer2 Leekie DYAD.png Season4Trailer2 Nealon DYAD.png Season4Trailer2 Scott DYAD.png CfOP6WdW8AA0RIn.jpg 12795346 945239112178281 1600634153375553515 n.jpg CdxjmN1UIAEuUXQ.jpg Screen Shot 2016-03-22 at 9.08.26 am.png Screen Shot 2016-03-22 at 9.04.06 am.png Screen Shot 2016-03-22 at 8.57.49 am.png Orphan-Black-Tatiana-Maslany.jpg Lepore-History-Lurking-Behind-Orphan-Black-1200.jpg 12814653 945674662134726 9210986367656966088 n.jpg 12814202 945674838801375 269100851602508102 n.jpg 12805943 945674765468049 8983130706294955066 n.jpg 12802798 945674758801383 4371296360166728470 n.jpg 12801259 945674828801376 710100874465310980 n.jpg 12795499 945674665468059 5407132145595017367 n.jpg OrphanBlackTeaserNeolution.png CbgyYv2WAAASqO0.jpg S4-02.jpg Cb2C1I7XIAAH68E.jpg Cb2C1u3W8AULk7n.jpg Cb2CzvQWwAAPwL .jpg Cb2C0OxWEAAcPe0.jpg 12795499 945674665468059 5407132145595017367 n.jpg 12795497 945674668801392 7106243128400813736 n.jpg 12795440 945674658801393 4084130572680000686 n.jpg 12795418 945674768801382 8233202895132442774 n.jpg 12376765 945674772134715 7079909944544800745 n.jpg 13043523 975051085863750 793112936658505774 n.jpg CgGcItZWQAAuwVY.jpg 13012876 972999119402280 2786158291139701103 n.jpg 13007121 972999116068947 4458482876481472508 n.jpg 12998699 974570752578450 7436838100281843996 n.jpg 12998586 975051115863747 5106838167482675774 n.jpg 12998532 975051089197083 8968647248898411354 n.jpg 12994585 975051082530417 2532530800193199740 n.jpg 12961515 972999122735613 9065631303887398504 n.jpg 1383011 962573563778169 3372162263327673510 n.jpg Orphan Black - 401 - The Collapse of Nature 4647.jpg Orphan Black - 401 - The Collapse of Nature 1951.jpg Orphan Black - 401 - The Collapse of Nature 1033.jpg Clu6-rcWEAAzb1z.jpg Sneak Peaks and Promos Orphan Black New Season Sneak Peek First Four Minutes Orphan Black Season 4 EXTENDED Closer Look MK & The Sheep Mask Orphan Black Season 4 Closer Look Cosima and The Rabbit Hole Orphan Black Season 4 Closer Look Beth Orphan Black Season 4 - Is This My Life Now? (Ep 1 Spoilers) Orphan Black Season 4 - There's Nothing Inside (Ep 1 Spoilers) Orphan Black Season 4 - Just Say It (Ep 1 Spoilers) Orphan Black Season 4 Free Full Episode - Ep 1 The Collapse of Nature - BBC America Music References Navigation Category:BBC America Category:Orphan Black TV Series Category:Season Premiere Category:Season 4 Episodes Category:Episodes Category:Flashback Episode